Melissa was in a panic as she drove home with her six-year-old son. Her husband had just phoned to tell her that Gertie, the family’s beloved dog, had slipped out of her collar during their walk to chase after a cat. He’d looked everywhere. “Well, God only knows where she is,” she’d told her husband. As she drove through the neighborhood searching for the dog, Melissa wondered, “How will we ever find her. She’s off the only path she knows. Gertie could be anywhere by now.” From the back seat Max, her six-year-old son, piped up, “Why don’t you ask God?” Melissa said, “What did you say, honey?” Max replied, “You said only God knows, so why don’t you ask Him?” Melissa chuckled and said a silent prayer. When she turned the next corner, there was Gertie barking up a tree at the neighbor’s cat. Source: magazine “Bits and Pieces,” September 2005, p 4)
Only God knows. Humans figured out how to travel to the Moon and are now aiming for Mars. We’ve figured out how our heart and lungs work. We can transplant kidneys and replace knees and hips. And though we haven’t learned everything about the pyramids, we’ve discovered some of their secrets. All that being said, the fact is there are many things that remain mysteries to the human mind. For instance, I didn’t know until recently researching for this little article that scientists still don’t know why people yawn! We do all the time, and my “non-educated-on the-matter” brain would explain simply that we yawn when we get sleepy. Yeah, that’s it, right?! Sounds good, but that’s when we yawn, and doesn’t provide a single clue as to why we yawn. Many people who aren’t sleepy begin to yawn when they see other people yawn. Wow, yawns are contagious, at least sort of! Scientists have theories, but they really don’t know why. Another unexplained thing — do you know why cats purr? In an article entitled “9 Phenomena That Science Still Can’t Explain” (website sciencealert.com), Allie Lembo said, Scientists understand how cats purr, but they’re still not sure why.” Theories abound, but experts agree there is no definite explanation. Space forbids more examples.
Christians understand there are things only God knows. There are “secret things that belong to the Lord our God” but also “things that are revealed to us” which Moses declared 3,500 ago are given so that “we may do all the words of this law” (that is, God’s Word – Deuteronomy 29:29). Solomon said 3,000 years ago, “It is the glory of God to conceal a matter, But the glory of kings to search out a matter” (Proverbs 25:2). Scripture declares God is all-knowing, that is He is “omniscient.” He knows everything about every person in every place and time, including you and me — even our “thought from afar off” (Psalm 139:2). God “counts the number of the stars, He calls them all by name. Great is our Lord, and mighty in power; His understanding is infinite” (Psalm 147:4-5). He knows how many individual hairs are on every head, and not even a single sparrow falls to the ground without His notice (Matthew 10:29-20). His wisdom and ways and knowledge in working out the scheme of redemption through Christ over the centuries is described in Romans 11:33 as “unsearchable and past finding out” (Romans 11:33). There is much speculation about the day and hour Christ will return, but not even the angels in heaven know. Only God knows. There are many things we just don’t know and never will. But, praise God, “God knows all things” (1 John 3:20). Even Google can’t say that.
by: Dan Gulley, Smithville, TN
